


Fate of the Sugar Hammer

by QuarticZirconia



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 03:09:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13021995
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuarticZirconia/pseuds/QuarticZirconia
Summary: Chloe and Nadine solve one last puzzle in India. Should you kiss your business partner goodbye at the airport?





	Fate of the Sugar Hammer

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to the [official LP artwork](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0580/0965/products/UnchartedLL_VinylJacket_02.JPG?v=1513019345), where Chloe and Nadine are literally reflected in each other's eyes. That's not romantic at all, Naughty Dog. https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0580/0965/products/UnchartedLL_VinylJacket_02.JPG?v=1513019345

The airport concourse rumbled in the turbulence of a landing jet. Wine glasses rattled above an overpriced bar where they hung upside down like a string of lights. Chloe Frazer sat in a cramped plastic seat. Too far from an electrical outlet to make up for the way it cut into her back. The chair and floor vibrated beneath her. When the jet’s thunder passed, rolling luggage and crackling to-go food bags filled the vacuum of sound.

Dozens of conversations mixed together like dueling radio stations around her and Nadine. Chloe’s eyes danced across the concourse like a nervous bird, never lighting in one place long enough to be noticed. She turned a longer stare through the ostentatious, floor-to-ceiling windows beside gate 94. Nadine’s plane waited outside with the passenger tunnel attached like a feeding tube to its neck.

Chloe was, uncharacteristically, at a loss for words. That thing she needed to say to Nadine had found its way into her throat again. Had shooed her breezy wit away, telling it to take a seat, for once, and wait its turn. They waited together--Nadine, Chloe, and the thing she needed to say. She hadn’t a bats clue what the words lodged in her throat were, only the feeling behind them. If she let them fly, they’d surprise her and Nadine both. And ruin the tenuous partnership the two women had forged only weeks earlier? It was a business partnership. With a woman Chloe had an increasingly unprofessional desire for. So she listened. To the airport, the people, the quiet overflow of music from Nadine’s earbuds.

She cut a glance sideways, but Nadine’s eyes were closed. Not napping. Just waiting and exhausted. Trusting Chloe to elbow her when her plane started boarding. Chloe’s throat tightened, and a thrill zipped up her sternum at the chance to study Nadine’s face uninterrupted. She swept steel-blue eyes over the curves of chestnut brown skin. Across wide cheeks and closed lashes, over unpainted lips that grew pinker near where they parted. Chloe pulled her eyes away when a vision of how she’d like to wake the Sleeping Beauty beside her flashed in her mind.

If they were going to have a first kiss, Nadine should at least see it coming. So she could pull away if she wanted to.

Chloe leaned forward over the encampment of luggage at their feet, suddenly needing something to _do_. Nadine’s plane would board any minute. Then Chloe would trek across the airport to her own gate and wait a few hours more. They would reunite when a job came up. Chloe already had a pair of good leads. The separation would be extra motivation to hook one. In the meantime, they had mothers to visit. To reassure with hugs that they had not fallen to their deaths in the Western Ghats.

She unzipped a side pouch with a few paper-wrapped treasures she hadn’t sold off yet. Feeling them through the paper, she found the shape she was after. “Aha.”

Nadine stirred with a deep inhale. She uncrossed her arms as Chloe sat up holding her prize aloft. Their shoulders met over the armrest between their seats. Nadine blinked sleepily and tugged her earbuds out by the cords.

“Admiring your plunder.” Nadine smirked, far more subtly than Chloe, who was pleased as punch with herself for thinking of the gift before Nadine’s plane swept her off to Johannesburg

“For you.” Chloe held the oblong package out to Nadine and leaned into to the contact of their arms rather than away from it. The touch was warm and comforting, and she might not see Nadine again for weeks. Or months. They’d not had much physical contact while they were chasing after Ganesha’s legendary Tusk or fighting the rebel Asav. But it felt like second nature now to simply lean against each other.

The top-heavy treasure dipped in Nadine’s hand as she took its weight and turned the package upright. “What’s this?” She lifted an eyebrow, skeptical but curious.

“A token of my affection. Found it near our elephant friends on the way to Belur.”

A sunny smile pulled across Nadine’s face as she folded the paper back and held up a ceremonial sugar hammer. “How did you get this past security?”

Chloe scoffed and held her fingers to her chest in mock offense. “If anyone can commandeer a plane with a sugar hammer, I don’t doubt its you, love, but I got it through security by running it through the x-ray scanner. Like a normal person.”

“It’s nice.”

“ _Nice?_ “ Chloe’s eyebrows climbed as she tried not to pout. “Is that all?”

Nadine tilted her head and held Chloe’s gaze. “It’s lovely. Thank you.”

“Your welcome.” Chloe nodded and smiled like a cat that had just laid down in the sun.

Nadine eyed the top of Chloe’s head. Then she tapped the air above it with the small gold hammer. “P’raps it’ll knock a bit of sense into you before you risk your life jumping another ravine a damned panther couldn’t make it across.”

“I made it across that ravine...which one are we talking about?” Chloe glanced at the high ceiling for the answer. Then she shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. Obviously, I made it or you caught me before I fell because here we are.”

Nadine wrapped the gift back in the innocuous brown paper and leaned forward to push it into a side pocket of her suitcase, sealing it with a quick zip. Chloe bit her lip to hold back a laugh. Some esoteric animal factoid was surely bouncing around Nadine’s head. “So…how far can panthers jump?”

“Over nine meters from a stand still or five and a half meters straight up. They’re the best jumpers of all the big cats.”

“Remind me to stay at least ten meters back next time we see one.”

Nadine glowed with excitement as she settled back upright in her seat. “Did you know _jaguar_ comes from the Native American word for _he who kills with one leap_?”

“I didn’t, no. Is that your callsign then?”

Nadine froze in shock, and Chloe gasped at landing a shot into the blue. “It is your callsign. Oh, darling.” Chloe cleared her throat against a rising laugh and tried valiantly to force a serious expression. She patted Nadine on the knee. “It’s very scary and intimidating.”

Chloe left her hand on the armrest instead of pulling it back to her side. Her fingers dangled tantalizingly close over Nadine’s hand where it rested on her thigh. Chloe watched the maintenance crew scamper about Nadine’s plane, playing it cool while her heart rate kicked up a gear. It had been years since she felt so raw around another person. Just a quirk of Nadine’s lips could knock the breath from her. Fleeting attractions came naturally to Chloe. There were a lot of pretty men and women in the world. But liking someone for the person beneath the skin? That was something she hadn’t felt for a long time. What she remembered most about it was that the person beneath her skin wasn’t what anyone had ever thought they would find there. _A disappointment._ She could live happily without hearing those words again.

“What’s your callsign?”

Chloe turned back and realized Nadine had been studying her. “Never had one. I don’t work well with others.”

“You work well with me.” Nadine grinned enigmatically. “When you tell me everything.”

Chloe slipped her hand down to wrap around Nadine’s, caution lifting away like dandelion seeds in the wind. She was the woman who dared to jump the ravine, not the one who stood wistfully at the edge. Chloe inhaled sharply as strong fingers turned to lace between her own. An unguarded look passed between them until Nadine broke away from the spell. Though eye contact was too much, Nadine swept her thumb across the back of Chloe’s hand. “I wish I had a gift for you, too.”

“You’re a clever girl.” Feeling energized, Chloe leaned closer. “I’m sure there’s something you could give me.”

Expecting a deflection, Chloe’s limbs felt suddenly heavy when Nadine shifted her body to face her instead. The fear that had flashed in Nadine’s features when she looked away was muted now. Replaced with open desire. For a split second, Nadine checked for Chloe’s reaction. Chloe swayed forward instinctively, a pendulum seeking equilibrium. Nadine met her more than halfway, and their lips pressed in a warm, closed-mouth kiss. Longer than most public kisses but not long enough to satisfy. Chloe felt light-headed and light-hearted when Nadine pulled back. Her topaz eyes shone with wonder. Like they’d discovered the lost city of Halebidu again.

Nadine rolled her bottom lip under her top teeth for a second and smiled, looking vulnerable rather than bashful. Chloe caught her breath. The mixed scent of Nadine’s soap and skin flooded her mind, and the words lodged in her throat escaped. “Come with me to Sydney.”

With a tiny shake of her head, Nadine looked at their suitcases. “I can’t break a promise to my mother...”

Chloe pouted but didn’t argue. Tipping the balance of a newborn relationship too far to herself would weaken it, not strengthen it. She was a novice at longer-than-a-week relationships, but she had observed enough of them to learn that much. She could as well go to Johannesburg, and yet she couldn’t for the same reasons. Chloe laid her head on Nadine’s perfectly muscled shoulder and exaggerated a sigh. “I don’t want to be apart for two weeks.”

Nadine kissed the top of her head. “Neither do I.”

Unlocking their new puzzle, Chloe perked up with a cheshire grin. Her voice dropped an octave as she leaned close to Nadine’s ear. “Let’s stay for another night and take different flights tomorrow.”

Temptation sparked in Nadine’s eyes. Then she shook her head again, and Chloe sighed, frustrated. But it was the single-minded Nadine Ross decision she expected. It took a lot for Nadine to lose her focus. Chloe doubted she could lure her off the edge in the last minutes before her plane taxied away. The gate tunnel had already opened and swallowed up the pilots and stewards.

“It’ll be over before we know it.” Nadine squeezed her hand gently. “Give us a chance to be sure about this.”

Chloe swallowed a rash declaration that she was sure. That she’d crossed that bridge when Nadine decked her for all of her half-truths. Running after muddy jeep tracks with warm rain and blood from a split lip streaming down her face. Unsure Chloe would have left Nadine to fight Asav’s armored personnel carrier alone that day. She blew it to hell with carefully placed C4 instead.

That didn’t mean Nadine was sure. Or that they could make it work.

“Call me when you land.”

“Ja, of course.”

The PA system called for boarding group one. Nadine let go of Chloe’s hand to stand up. She tipped her luggage onto its wheels. Other passengers drifted into a cloud that hovered near the gate. A handful scanned their phones by the attendant and rolled into the tunnel.

Chloe stood beside Nadine in limbo. How did more than friends but less than girlfriends say goodbye? She improvised and circled her arms around Nadine’s tapered waist. “Once more for luck.”

She was inches from stealing a second kiss when the PA called for boarding group two. Nadine stiffened and looked at the gate. “Shit. That’s me.” Cupping the back of Chloe’s head in her hand, Nadine gave her a quick peck goodbye. “Try not to get shot at without me.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it. Who would admire my marksmanship?”

“And save your ass.”

“And admire my ass.”

Nadine shook her head in fond exasperation. She stepped backwards for a few steps. Then turned around and boarded her plane. Chloe did her share of admiring before Nadine’s athletic body disappeared into the tunnel.

Chloe gathered her luggage and tried not to freak out. She floated along the moving walkways to her gate on the other side of the airport. Sights and sounds blurred together as her mind lingered in Nadine’s embrace.

She opened her laptop to distract herself with work. The sooner she pinned down a lead, the sooner they could team up again. It would just be coincidence if the journey took them to the northern or southern lights.

**Author's Note:**

> Getting more interpretive, one could read the cover art as Chloe and Nadine "seeing" each other for who they truly are. Or the image in each eye could represent that Chloe and Nadine are thinking of each other. Fun times, diving into the depths of a clever painting.


End file.
